1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to wireless communication devices and more particularly to wireless communication devices that provide information relating to the alignment and orientation of the device.
2. Description of Related Art
The use of wireless communication devices for data networking continues to grow at a rapid pace. Data networks that use “WiFi” (“Wireless Fidelity”), also known as “Wi-Fi,” are relatively easy to install, convenient to use, and supported by the IEEE 802.11 standard. WiFi data networks also provide performance that makes WiFi a suitable alternative to a wired data network for many business and home users.
WiFi networks operate by employing wireless access points that provide users, having wireless (or “client”) devices in proximity to the access point, with access to varying types of data networks such as, for example, an Ethernet network or the Internet. The wireless access points include a radio that operates according to the standards specified in different sections of the IEEE 802.11 specification. Generally, radios in the access points communicate with client devices by utilizing omni-directional antennas that allow the radios to communicate with client devices in any direction. The access points are then connected (by hardwired connections) to a data network system that completes the access of the client device to the data network. The different standards under IEEE 802.11 define channels that wireless devices, or clients, use when communicating with an access point.
High-end wireless access devices recently developed include multiple radios to improve bandwidth, user density, signal strength, coverage area, signal management, and load balancing. These high-end wireless access devices (wireless arrays) may operate in the WiFi frequency bands. For example, under the IEEE 802.11 standard, the wireless access devices may operate in and around the 2.4 GHz, 3.6 GHz, and 5 GHz frequency bands, which provide various channels (i.e., frequencies) in which WiFi communications may be transmitted. Because these high-end wireless access devices include multiple radios, each radio may operate in a different channel (i.e., at a different frequency) to avoid any interference that may result from frequency overlap. Overlapping frequencies may degrade performance and result in poor wireless communications due to, for example, low throughput. Thus, having each radio of a wireless array operate at a different frequency helps to reduce frequency overlap and interference.
However, overlapping frequencies may also result when multiple wireless access devices are installed in various locations around the campuses of businesses, hospitals, schools, and the like to provide campus-wide wireless coverage. For example, a group of wireless access devices may be installed such that radios operating at the same frequency are pointed toward each other. If the antenna patterns of the radios operating at the same frequency overlap, interference and performance degradation may result as discussed above. Therefore, frequency planning helps to avoid frequency overlap when installing and configuring the multiple wireless access devices. Frequency planning may depend upon knowledge of how the wireless access devices are oriented. However, existing methods to acquire orientation information may rely on visual inspection and estimation. These conventional methods may be prone to error and lead to misleading or inaccurate information regarding the orientation of a wireless access device.
The wireless access devices may also be used to locate clients throughout the campus wireless network. Based on the wireless access device a client is in signal communication with, the location of the client can be approximated. The ability to locate a client may be useful, for example, to recover lost or stolen wireless devices. The ability to locate a client may also be useful when clients are fixed to individual containers at storage sites enabling the location of the containers at the storage site to be tracked. However, accurately determining the location of a client may also depend upon having accurate information regarding how one or more of the wireless access device are oriented.
Therefore, a need exists for a wireless access device that provides accurate orientation information, which may be used during frequency planning and to improve methods for identifying the location of a client transmitting to the wireless access device.